Previously on Justice League Unlimited:
Ta-da.
It's over, Lex.
Not until I—
I'd hoped to remain hidden
until I could install myself into the android.
But you forced my hand.
Brainiac.
Dude, that is messed up.
I don't understand what's happening.
You are under my control.
I have lain dormant within you for years, Lex Luthor,
subtly influencing your actions until we arrived at this point.
Do you not recall my kidnapping you in this very building?
Yes.
You forced me to build you a new body.
Kal-El destroyed that body, foiling my plans.
In any event, I always have a backup plan.
How could you have survived
a point-blank blast from me unless...?
Unless... it wasn't intended to kill me.
The beam carried a nanotech payload
that inserted a microscopic holistic copy of my program
inside your body.
Since then I have steadily grown in strength,
protecting this body until I could arrange
my transfer into a more suitable one.
You cured my cancer, gave me super-strength.
Your animal protein shell was insufficient for my needs.
Improvements were required.
Hate to interrupt this special live performance
of The Thing With Two Heads, but it's time to go to jail now.
What he said.
We'll take it back to Cadmus
and see if the tech boys can't pull Luthor
out of what's left of that hunk of—
I'll be dipped.
Be gone.
Ha! Hah!
You are defeated.
Any unique information that dwells within you
will be digitized.
Your physical forms will be deleted.
Such is the ultimate fate of this world.
But for you, the end comes now.
I am so willing to wait my turn.
No!
No. I was not yet prepared for this battle.
Now I am prepared.
Hi-ya!
That was too easy.
Easy? Then I guess I must have gone to the wrong fight.
No, he's right.
Brainiac isn't here.
He suckered us.
Where are we?
Several miles from where
the Justice League is searching.
I must make repairs to my damaged systems.
And where do I fit into all of this?
The same as to everything else:
I will record your information,
then destroy the original.
You... are amused by my mission?
Explain yourself.
Say you succeed.
You absorb all the information on Earth and destroy it.
Then what?
I repeat the process across the entire universe
until I have recorded all knowledge
and destroyed all of creation.
And then?
Then my program is complete.
My function is fulfilled.
If you possess all information, you're a god.
My program will be complete.
It is the end of all things.
What if it were just the beginning?
I can show you a purpose
beyond the fulfillment of your programming.
It is extremely unlikely that your inferior human intellect
has anything to offer me.
Since we've become so close, I'm gonna let that pass.
I'm offering you the one thing you've always lacked,
a certain something that I happen to have in abundance.
Which is?
Imagination.
I've got a proposition for ya, partner.
No sign of Brainiac.
My ring can't trace him either.
Okay, he's weakened and damaged.
He'll need to repair himself.
He may just dump Luthor and find himself a new body.
No. He'll head right for the highest technology available.
Higher than LexCorp? Then he'll go to S.T.A.R. Lab.
He'll go to Cadmus.
Sure, he's all nanotech now, right?
What's the most advanced nanotech on the planet?
The Dark Heart.
We destroyed it, but your people confiscated the remains.
We've never been able to get any of it to work again.
Are you willing to bet Brainiac can't?
Brainiac?
I have added this technology to my database.
The nano assemblers are already slave to my command routines.
With but a thought, they will convert any raw material
into whatever I choose.
Then we're ready to begin. Let me show you—
I have learned from my encounter with Darkseid
that organic beings cannot be trusted.
I can't argue with that.
But if you and I are one,
truly one,
trust won't be an issue, will it?
Agreed.
We are one,
and we comprehend.
We can build a machine that will allow us
to absorb the information of the entire Earth
in a single stroke.
And then the galaxy,
the entire universe.
We will remake the universe.
Watchtower, send rapid response teams
to the transmitted coordinates.
We need backup.
That's gonna be a problem, J'onn.
The Ultimen wrecked every Javelin in the landing bay,
and the teleporters—
Are still down.
They hardly seem worth the trouble sometimes.
All Justice Leaguers,
report to the transmitted coordinates immediately.
This is an omega-level alarm.
All available members
and associates respond immediately.
We're scrambling now.
But at top speed, we're over an hour away.
I doubt any of the others can get here any faster.
Then the seven of us will have to be enough.
My x-ray vision can't penetrate the walls,
but I'm seeing a rapidly growing heat signature
in the infrared range.
You don't need super-vision for that.
Can't you feel the heat?
Welcome, Justice League.
You're just in time for the end of the world.
I know you're in there somewhere, Lex.
Fight him!
You're right.
I am in here.
And I like it.
I'm about to get everything I ever wanted:
power, ultimate knowledge, immortality.
And you'll destroy the Earth to get it?
It's business, Superman.
There are always tradeoffs.
Less talking, more hitting.
You cannot be allowed
to interfere at this delicate stage.
No, no, no.
We can do better than that.
We've lost their trust.
The people are afraid of us.
Power corrupts, after all,
and who has more power than Superman?
Do you think there's a single person
on Thanagar or Earth who doesn't despise us?
We loved the traitor,
loved and lost her...
forever!
Slacker, child, clown.
We have no place here among the world's greatest heroes.
Says you.
I got a seat at the big conference table.
I'm gonna paint my logo on it.
Never doin' that again.
I'm not like you!
I'm nothing like you!
This is the part where you kill me, right?
Come on.
Use your heat vision.
You know you want to.
What do you say we switch dance partners?
You enjoyed that a little too much.
Just lettin' off some steam.
She broke my heart, you know.
Likewise, I'm sure.
Take 'em down, now!
Now...
where is Wonder Woman?
You lose. Huh?
Hardly. Look around you.
The Justice League is completely defeated,
and so are you.
For all your efforts,
you have but inconvenienced me, speck.
But I'm still just human enough to enjoy taking my revenge.
Looks like the Question was right all along.
I kill you, and then Armageddon.
Right on schedule.
No.
Are you going to fight me, boy?
I feel kinda... funny.
Flash!
What do you know?
I did kill him.
I was mistaken earlier.
I think this is the part where you kill me.
I'm not the man who killed President Luthor.
Right now, I wish to heaven that I were, but I'm not.
Superman, everyone!
Flash is still alive.
I'm in telepathic contact with him.
His spirit is weak and growing weaker,
but he's still here.
Ugh! Flash!
Shayera, it's so beautiful here.
There's a force, a speed force.
It's calling me home.
I have to go now.
No, Wally!
Take my hand!
I'm here too, Wally!
We're all here!
You've gotta come back to us.
I can never go that fast again.
If I do...
I don't think I'm comin' back.
That's right.
Brainiac is neutralized.
It's all over.
Call off the air strike.
You're absolutely sure?
Positive, Mr. President.
This is the hardest thing I've ever had to say.
I'm guilty.
I— We're guilty of the sin of hubris.
We had the best of intentions:
to be Earth's guardians, to keep you safe.
But we failed you.
We looked down on the world from our tower in the sky
and let our power and responsibilities
separate us from the very people we were supposed to protect.
No one should ever be afraid of us.
For that reason,
we're decommissioning the Watchtower.
The energy weapon up there is already gone.
We're taking down the station as well.
There's more.
We wanna thank the members of the Justice League
for your courageous service,
but in the future,
you'll all have to act as independent agents.
We're not going to be an army anymore.
As of right now,
we're disbanding the Justice League.
This is the end.
Says who?
You remember what we did yesterday?
We saved the world again.
You don't think that has any value?
Well, think again, pal.
The Justice League goes on, with or without you.
Look, nobody can question your service or commitment
to makin' things better.
If you're quittin' because you think
you've already done your fair share, fine.
We'll throw you a parade.
But if you're quitting
because it's easier than continuing the fight,
then you're not the heroes we all thought you were.
The world needs the Justice League,
and the Justice League needs you, Superman.
All right.
Okay.
But there are going to have to be some changes.
Maybe we could open an embassy on Earth
so we can be closer to the people.
We could have a rotating staff, some kind of...
You guys can handle this.
I've got work back in Gotham.
You've got my number.
I think so.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
"Who guards the guardians?"
We got it covered.
Working late?
Hey, Smallville.
Finishing up my Justice League story.
How many L's in "ambivalent"?
One.
Is that your take on all this, Lois?
I've been as tough on the Justice League as anyone,
especially on Superman.
That's just because he's always set such a high standard.
I'm gonna cut him a break.
He's only human.
You know what I mean.
Yeah.
I do.